Darker Then Death

Life

(n.) noun

1.

the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.

Chapter I

Suck Me Dry

Life wasn't really a well used word anymore. It's not that we didn't use it, we did, but that was the problem. We weren't actually "alive" per se so comparing us to life was basically like comparing cats to dogs.

Idiocy.

I mean for a start dogs and cats didn't even look a like so the whole situation was just totally wrong.

Anyway, the point is, life is a word I don't like. It wastes my time. I'm not living after all: my heart doesn't beat; my cells don't reproduce so why would I want to tell everyone something that wasn't true?

I mean there was still living creatures in our world but it didn't feel right when we weren't one of them.

We were Vlak after-all and none of us saw the effort of telling a lie that was so obviously not true.

And just to let you know, Vlak meant (more or less) vampyre.

Now, technically we were actually vampires but that's what Vlak translated into and it didn't bother me enough to care about the difference in spelling.

They meant the exact same thing to me anyway: bloodsucking leaches. I guess it was a fair assumption to make that I wasn't exactly an optimistic murderer.

But that's beside the point. Like I had mentioned before, humans were no longer a part of our world. While the humans still lived in hideout, we dominated the world and we were also a good enough reason to scream if they happened to find us. Of course, they'd be dead before they even opened their mouth.

Thank God.

Humans were such annoying creatures once you let them talk.

Anyway, enough talk about humans. Even though I was a Vlak myself, I didn't actually like the species. Vlak were known for their backstabbing and manipulation; I needed no reminder of how cruel we could be.

I sighed and rubbed my neck –I really needed no reminder.

But we weren't the only vampires. There were two other species running off the Original vampires: Spelk and Herrif. Spelk were known for their appearance (or lack of) and were –rightly so- nicknamed 'Shadows'; in fact, they reminded me a lot of the Cheshire Cat and I took a certain pleasure out of drinking their blood.

And then there was Herrif; the vampire community were broken in up into three species (no surprise, obviously) and with Vlak filling up little over 10% of the population of the population of vampires, 36% coming from Spelk and the rest from Herrif, it was fair to say Herrif were the dominating species. Except they weren't really. Herrif hunted in packs and it was rare and a nice surprise when you found one alone.

The reason Vlak numbers were so small was although we were the strongest and most deadly race, we opted away from groups and of course, understandably, 10 Herrifs and 1 Vlak didn't fair well in our odds.

But then again, I was more amused then concerned.

Anyway, because of the lack of living creatures, we had learned to adapt. Although Vlak, Herrif and Spelk were vampires, our genetic makeup was different and so was our blood –so different in fact, that our races were, more or less, wiping each other out.

With no other reliable food source, it was the only option and although it probably wasn't my ideal idea, it was a solution for now. And Vlak, me included obviously, hunted to kill and every species got hungry easily –it worked out well enough for us.

I mean, of course there were political issues we had to consider but the main point was clear.

We were cannibalistic.

We were dangerous.

And most importantly, we were murderers.

Of course that links back to the first things I said –being a murderer had to include killing something. And killing something meant that at one point, they had to be alive.

I had no answer for that but I preferred to keep to simple thoughts and words. In fact, my favourite simple phrase right now that I found eerily fitting was "Suck me dry."

I quite liked it, honestly.